Nigerian President is listed among 100 most influential people in the world,2012

Are  you surprised?

TIME Magazine, a US Weekly News magazine today released its annual list of the ‘100 Most Influential People in the World’ for the year 2012.

Making this list is Nigeria’s President, Goodluck Jonathan.
According to TIME,“they are the people who inspire us, entertain us, challenge us and change our world.”

read more

The citation on Jonathan was written by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia: Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan exemplifies the African political renaissance at a time when the people of the continent are starting to reap the fruit of their resources and their hard work. President Jonathan, 54, possesses the qualities needed at this moment of great challenges, having come to power at a crucial moment in the history of Nigeria.

The country has grown out of its past of corruption, mismanagement and brutality, but the foundation of good governance is still fragile. In two short years, President Jonathan has shown the same dexterity he demonstrated as governor of Bayelsa, the same ability to find the remedies to the many complexities of running a nascent democracy. He has spearheaded the fight against corruption and turned Nigeria into an example of good governance. He has also made a significant impact on consolidating peace and security in West Africa. From the onset of our own crisis, Liberia has benefitted from the support of Nigeria.

President Jonathan not only upheld the trend but added to it. With leaders like President Jonathan, Africa is sure to move toward prosperity, freedom and dignity for all of its people. The list also contains names like United States of America President Barack Obama; U.S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, American Republican presidential candidates, Mitt Romney and American billionaire Warren Buffett. Singers Adele and Rihanna, footballer Lionel Messi and the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire and founder of Spanx, Sara Blakely also made the list. There are 38 women on the 2012 list, more than any other year.

The list was chosen by through voting by TIME readers from around the world. Here’s a look at the names that feature in the TIME 100 list:
• Jeremy Lin- Basketball Player, America
• Christian Marclay- Visual artist and composer, Swiss-America
• Viola Davis- Actress, America
• Salman Khan- Educator, America
 • Tim Tebow- Football quarterback, American
• EL James- Author, America
 • Louis CK- Comedian, Mexican-American
• Rihanna- Recording artist, actress, US
• Marco Rubio- United States Senator from Florida
• Ali Ferzat- Cartoonist, Syria
• René Redzepi- chef, Denmark
• Kristen Wiig- Television actress, comedian, America
 • Anthony Kennedy- Associate Justice, United States Supreme Court
• Novak Djokovic- Tennis player, Serbia and Montenegro
• Ben Rattray- Founder, Change.org, US
• Jessica Chastain- Actress, America
• Yani Tseng- Golfer- Republic of China (Taiwan)
• Raphael Saadiq- Singer- America • Elinor Ostrom- Economist, US
• Samira Ibrahim- Plaintiff, Egypt
 • Jose Andres- Chef, Spanish • Ann Patchett- Writer, America
• Dulce Matuz- President, Arizona Dream Act Coalition
• Henrik Scharfe- Professor, Director, Centre for Computer-mediated Epistemology, Denmark
• Freeman Hrabowski- Educator, America
• Maryam Durani- Member, Kandahar Provincial Council, Afghanistan
• Manal al-Sharif- Women’s rights activist and computer security consultant, Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia
• Anjali Gopalan- Advocate, India
• Rached Ghannouchi- Tunisian Islamist politician and co-founder, The Ennahda Movement
• Barbara Van Dahlen- Founder and President, Give an Hour, US
• Ron Fouchier- Scientist, Erasmus Medical Center, The Netherlands
• Donald Sadoway- John F Elliott Professor, Materials Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US
• Hans Rosling- Statistician, Sweden
• Asghar Farhadi- Filmmaker, Iran • Sarah Burton- Fashion Designer, UK
• Anonymous- Self described hacktivist group, Voluntary association, Global
• Pete Cashmore- Social News Guru,Scotland
• Cami Anderson- Superintendent,Newark schools
• Ali Babacan and Ahmet Davutoglu- Neo-Ottomans
• Ai-jen Poo- Director, National Domestic Workers Alliance, US
• Marc Andreessen- Kingmaker, America
• Preet Bharara- Prosecutor, America
• Robert Grant- AIDS Researcher, San Francisco
• Andrew Lo- Harris & Harris Group Professor Director, MIT Laboratory for Financial Engineering • Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy- Pakistani-Canadian journalist, documentary filmmaker
• Alexei Navalny- Russian lawyer, politician, and political and financial activist
• Ray Dalio- American businessman and founder of Bridgewater Associates
 • Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani- Prime Minister of Qatar
• Chelsea Handler- American stand-up comedian, actress, best-selling author, and producer
• Harvey Weinstein- American film producer and movie studio chairman
• Chen Lihua- Chairperson, Fu Wah International, China
 • Warren Buffett- Chairman & CEO of Berkshire Hathaway
• Alice Walton- Heiress, Walton family fortune
• Harold Hamm- CEO, Continental Resources
• Sheryl Sandberg- COO, Facebook
• Sara Blakely- Founder of Spanx, and world’s youngest self-made female billionaire, US
• Eike Batista- President, EBX Group, Brazil
• Tim Cook- CEO, Apple, US
• Daniel Ek- CEO and Founder, Spotify, Sweden
 • Virginia Rometty- CEO, IBM, US
• Barack Obama- President, USA
• Goodluck Jonathan- President of Nigeria
• Xi Jinping- First Secretary of the Central Secretariat of the Communist Party of China
• Fatou Bensouda- Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Gambia
 • Christine Lagarde- MD, IMF, France
• Mario Draghi- President, European Central Bank, Italy
.U Thein Sein- President of Burma
• Ayatullah Ali Khamenei- Supreme Leader of Iran
• Mitt Romney- Candidate, 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination
• Juan Manuel Santos- President of Colombia
• Timothy Dolan- American Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church
• Portia Simpson Miller- Prime Minister of Jamaica
• Mario Monti- Prime Minister of Italy
 • Wang Yang- Secretary, Guangdong Committee of the Communist Party of China
 • Maria das Gracas Silva Foster- CEO of Petrobras, Brazil
• Andrew Cuomo- Governor of New York, US
• Iftikhar Chaudhry- Chief Justice of Pakistan • Mamata Banerjee- Chief Minister Of Indian state of West Bengal
• Walter Isaacson- President and CEO, Aspen Institute, US
• Ron Paul- Member of the US House of Representatives
• Benjamin Netanyahu- Prime Minister of Israel
• Dilma Rousseff- President of Brazil
• Erik Martin- Founder and editor, Muschelhaufen
• Cecile Richards- Democratic Party activist, President, Planned Parenthood Federation of America • Angela Merkel- Chancellor of Germany
• Lionel Messi- Footballer and Captain of Argentinian national team
• Tilda Swinton- British actress • Hillary Clinton- United States Secretary of State
• Catherine- Duchess of Cambridge, and Pippa Middleton, her sister
• Adele- Recording artist and songwriter, UK
• Matt Lauer, TV journalist, Host, NBC’s The Today Show
• Oscar Pistorius- sprint runner, South Africa
• Claire Danes- American television, stage and film actress
• Stephen Colbert- American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, actor; Host, Comedy
Central’s The Colbert Report